Readings | IX The Hermit

IX

The Hermit

Solitude, experience, stillness, withdrawal

Upright: Seeking solitude for the greater good.  Retreating for spiritual and educational advancement.  Lighting the way for those with less experience. Stepping back to gain perspective.  Reserving space for others.

Henry the Ninth

(1969)

The English have abandoned England because the weather is dreadful.  They have all gone to warmer climes.  The last man remains and walks the white cliffs of Dover.  He wants to protect the history, literature and very fabric of all that is England.  Should anyone return, he will greet them and protect all that he holds dear.  As there are no others, he is renamed Henry IX.

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"Great God, Sam, don’t you know me after fifty years? Couldn’t you guess I would want to be the last man in all Britain, no that hasn’t the proper sound, Great Britain?

Last man in Great Britain, thought Harry, Lord, listen. It tolls.  It is the great bell of London heard through all the mizzles down through time to this strange day and hour when the last, the very last save one, leave this racial mound, this burial touch of green set in a sea of cold light.  The last.  The last.

“Samuel, listen. My grave is dug. I’d hate to leave it behind.”

“Who’ll put you in it?”

“Me, when the time is right.”

“And who’s to cover over?”

“Why there is dust to cover dust, Sam. The wind will see to it.”